meggytheweggy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Child abuse and Sexual assault
Minor: Animal death
snekmint's review against another edition
1.0
Unfortunately, this book was a slog. Jean Lorrah tries to give us more expansion of Tasha Yar as a young woman and as a rehabilitated victim, but instead we are pushed through an exceedingly long Away Team adventure that's up to its tits in 80s misogyny and heterosexual tension.
It is constantly tiring to me that people in the late 80s writing Star Trek characters in the 24th century cannot free their minds and their characters from 1960s social mores.
At one point we see Yar "...putting on makeup, preparing to don a diaphanous blue and lavender gown Pris had lent her... At the moment Dare's [her ex boyfriend] hair was longer than hers, but he had never minded her short style. Since childhood, she had always kept it cut too short for an assailant to find much to grab onto, and Dare, bless him, had never once 'wondered what it would look like if...' as had every other man she had been intimately acquainted with."
Really? In the 24th century, women (1) still are expected to have longer hair than men, (2) rarely have short hair and (3) are still berated for having short hair? REALLY? Poor Lorrah could not imagine that in a mere 30 years short hair on women would be perfectly acceptable, and that the gender binary is being finally blown up by the generation that embraced nonbinary gender expression.
I know, it's old-school sci-fi. But it's weak. A large amount of the 'tension' in the book is supposed to be Yar and Dare's "Will we/won't we" sexuality and the other half is Data emoting in narration and thinking about sex with Yar and how he's jealous (!!) of her relationship with Dare.
Really?
My last serious concern is with the very unfortunate and immature overuse of exclamation points in narration. You don't add tension by appending a screaming exclamation point to a declarative sentence, you add tension through the crafting of the scene. For someone with as many books under her belt as Lorrah, there's really no excuse unless she killed her editor.
"It sailed in over them, weapons blasting.
All six guns fired at the looming shadow-- it spit sparks, but kept coming!
'Run!' Barb shouted.
They had destroyed the craft's steering controls.
Data could see the panicked face of the pilot through the windscreen as the flyer sailed out of control, on a collision course with the castle ramparts!"
Do we need a new paragraph for every single sentence? Do we need two exclamation points within 3 narrative sentences? No and no. Sorry. It's exhausting and it's bad craftsmanship.
One star, because it's taken me weeks to read this and it's not even that long of a book.
It is constantly tiring to me that people in the late 80s writing Star Trek characters in the 24th century cannot free their minds and their characters from 1960s social mores.
At one point we see Yar "...putting on makeup, preparing to don a diaphanous blue and lavender gown Pris had lent her... At the moment Dare's [her ex boyfriend] hair was longer than hers, but he had never minded her short style. Since childhood, she had always kept it cut too short for an assailant to find much to grab onto, and Dare, bless him, had never once 'wondered what it would look like if...' as had every other man she had been intimately acquainted with."
Really? In the 24th century, women (1) still are expected to have longer hair than men, (2) rarely have short hair and (3) are still berated for having short hair? REALLY? Poor Lorrah could not imagine that in a mere 30 years short hair on women would be perfectly acceptable, and that the gender binary is being finally blown up by the generation that embraced nonbinary gender expression.
I know, it's old-school sci-fi. But it's weak. A large amount of the 'tension' in the book is supposed to be Yar and Dare's "Will we/won't we" sexuality and the other half is Data emoting in narration and thinking about sex with Yar and how he's jealous (!!) of her relationship with Dare.
Really?
My last serious concern is with the very unfortunate and immature overuse of exclamation points in narration. You don't add tension by appending a screaming exclamation point to a declarative sentence, you add tension through the crafting of the scene. For someone with as many books under her belt as Lorrah, there's really no excuse unless she killed her editor.
"It sailed in over them, weapons blasting.
All six guns fired at the looming shadow-- it spit sparks, but kept coming!
'Run!' Barb shouted.
They had destroyed the craft's steering controls.
Data could see the panicked face of the pilot through the windscreen as the flyer sailed out of control, on a collision course with the castle ramparts!"
Do we need a new paragraph for every single sentence? Do we need two exclamation points within 3 narrative sentences? No and no. Sorry. It's exhausting and it's bad craftsmanship.
One star, because it's taken me weeks to read this and it's not even that long of a book.
courtney12345's review against another edition
1.0
Is it the worst thing I've ever read , no. Is it in the bottom ten, yes. The book starts brutally with the rape of Tasha as a child. I should have stopped reading it at this point. Most of the book is flashbacks to a previous marriage of Tasha's. So much of the book was flashbacks that when the actual plot showed back up I was confused. Do yourself a favor, just go ahead and skip this book.
caffeine_books's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
Not impressed with the book - moved a bit slow and the ending was a jarring non sequitur. Attempted to show Data's progression with emotions and his relationship with Tasha. As a result did neither of the characters justice.
natalie_davies's review against another edition
2.0
Meh! Not the worst thing I've read, but maybe I expect my sci-fi to be... I dunno? Futuristic, presenting a futuristic vision, this is chock full of weirdness around its female characters, gender roles and the like. The constant references to R*pe gangs on Tasha's home planet of New Paris were also pretty exhausting to read. Tasha is a character with underutilized depths, and somehow, even with a 200 page tie-in novel I still feel like that's the case.
Glad to have this off my tbr though, even if it was less of a fruitful experience than I expected as a fan of the source material. I think the other TNG novels I picked up (especially Dark Mirror) have a better reputation, so I'm not unwilling to give some of those a shot.
Glad to have this off my tbr though, even if it was less of a fruitful experience than I expected as a fan of the source material. I think the other TNG novels I picked up (especially Dark Mirror) have a better reputation, so I'm not unwilling to give some of those a shot.
frakalot's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the story as a whole but I can't say I enjoyed the whole journey.
It was great to have a Yar-centric story, since her presence in the episodes was ultimately cut short. I like her character and the complexity of her personality is greatly emphasised in this book.
I especially enjoyed getting inside Data's android perspective. The scenes in the final chapter were lovely.
Some of Yar's background is horrific and tragic. The author treated those topics more matter-of-factly than delicately.
I'm not big on love stories and I found the sections of this story about Yar's love interest to be less than enjoyable.
I'm glad this story is in the collection, even if it wasn't my favourite adventure.
It was great to have a Yar-centric story, since her presence in the episodes was ultimately cut short. I like her character and the complexity of her personality is greatly emphasised in this book.
I especially enjoyed getting inside Data's android perspective. The scenes in the final chapter were lovely.
Some of Yar's background is horrific and tragic. The author treated those topics more matter-of-factly than delicately.
I'm not big on love stories and I found the sections of this story about Yar's love interest to be less than enjoyable.
I'm glad this story is in the collection, even if it wasn't my favourite adventure.
djwudi's review against another edition
3.0
Explores Tasha Yar’s past, her reconciliation with parts of that past shortly before her death, and her relationship with Data. Despite having some early-novel oddities, this one was a bit above average.
amelianicholebooks's review against another edition
3.0
It was a well written, sad book with a few high points. I had hoped for a different ending, but it was more realistic the way it ended.